Former banker drops legal team in Boston case and seeks eight-week extension

Former Anglo Irish Bank chief executive David Drumm has sought an eight-week extension to file legal records setting out the grounds for his appeal against the second rejection of bankruptcy bid in the US courts.

Edward McNally, Mr Drumm’s lawyer, told the First Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston that there was “good cause” to grant Mr Drumm his extension as he has been incarcerated since October, most recently in Plymouth County Correctional Facility in Massachusetts, in his extradition case.

The 49-year-old Dubliner is seeking to overturn a Massachusetts bankruptcy court ruling refusing to give him a fresh financial start with the write-off of €10 million in debt to his former bank.

Mr McNally told the court that because of his incarceration and “the severe restrictions and limitations of the Plymouth facility as well as the fact that his attorneys are located in New York, Mr Drumm has not been able to adequately confer with counsel and review the record.”

The former banker told the court that he has authorised Mr McNally to withdraw from the case as Mr Drumm intends to proceed with his appeal against the January 2015 bankruptcy ruling representing himself.

In light of his intention to act for himself, the eight-week extension was “reasonable and would permit him additional time to prepare for and draft the brief” setting out the grounds of his appeal, his attorney said.

Bankruptcy judge Frank Bailey found in his ruling that Mr Drumm knowingly and fraudulently misled creditors by failing to disclose the transfer of hundreds of thousands of euro in cash and property to his wife Lorraine, starting in 2008 when the bank was facing collapse.

The judge said that Mr Drumm was “not remotely credible” and said that his statements to the court were “replete with knowingly false statements, failures to disclose, efforts to misdirect and outright lies”.

A second judge, US District Court judge Leo Sorokin, also sitting in Boston, upheld Judge Bailey’s ruling saying that he had made “no mistake” in denying Mr Drumm a discharge from bankruptcy.

The former banker is awaiting extradition from the US to Ireland in separate extradition proceedings after he waived his right this month to challenge 33 charges he faces in Ireland at a probable cause hearing.

Mr Drumm is expected to return in the coming weeks to face charges relating to transactions carried out while he was chief executive of the bank. He has said he intends to contest the charges alleged against him.